December 31, 2011

2011 in Reading: A Retrospective

Happy New Year's Eve, EDIWTB readers! I hope you all have a wonderful celebration tonight and a great year in 2012. I know it will be a big year on this end, with a new addition coming in June.

Last year, Books on the Nightstand issued a challenge: read 11 more books in 2011 than you read in 2010. I took that challenge on, and am happy to report that I far surpassed it. I read 54 books in 2011, compared to 33 books in 2010. I'm happy about that number. I credit audiobooks, which allowed me to layer more books in during a month, despite my short commute. BOTN's challenge for 2012 isn't to add ANOTHER 12 to the 2011 count, but to choose 12 selected books - 12 non-fiction, 12 classics, etc. Or just 12x12=144 books (!). I'd love to repeat this year's number, but I have a feeling that will be hard.

The theme of the year was: depressing subjects. The books I read spanned the following: the siege of Leningrad, war veterans and families, the horrors of life in Afghanistan and Pakistan, suicide, a Rapture-esque dystopia, kidnapping, unnamed diseases, autism, polygamy, bigamy, anti-Semitism, madness in the Amazon, adultery, amnesia, giving up children with Down syndrome, 9/11, slavery in America, child estrangement, missing parents, ghosts, picture brides and Japanese internment. Sheesh.

Happy New Year! Four books by authors I'd never read before blew me away in 2011. I love discovering new (to me, at least) authors.
Fauna - Alissa York
Father of the Rain - Lily King
The God of Animals - Aryn Kyle
The False Friend - Myla Goldberg

I'm incredibly impressed you upped your number of books so much this year! Your list of best reads is so eclectic, and it reminds me I must read Open. It was one of the first books I bought for my Kindle when I got it two years ago, but I still haven't read it. Perhaps it will get me in the mood for the Australian Open this year!

Just missing the cut was White Fang by Jack London, which I had not previously read but was great.

Worst of the year was Bossypants by Tina Fey. Just like most SNL episodes, funny at first but then goes on too long on one joke and wish it would end. Speaking of too long, try Life by Keith Richards and The Forever War by Dexter Filkens. Enjoyed both of them, but need a visit from the editor's red pen. Novels by David Baldacci (Absolute Power, The Winner) and Jodi Picoult (Plain Truth (predictable)) are fun to read but forgotten a week later.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is bad in the sense that I can't believe that anyone would intentionally have that kind of horrible relationship with their kids. Good luck with that.

Enjoy your blog! Will need a longer commute to add audiobooks to repetoire

Gayle, Thanks for the special mention. One of my favorite books this was a middle grade book. Very surprising. Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me. I didn't know writing for that age group could be so good.